Video marketing has become dominant in recent years, and it’s easy to see why. Consumers love video: One study by Hubspot found that 78% of people watch online videos every week, while 54% watch videos every day.
For marketers, video offers a great opportunity to engage with customers. There are many free and affordable video marketing tools that make it easy to create and share custom videos, one of which is Vimeo.
Vimeo was spun off as its own public entity towards the end of May 2021, indicating that investors see real value in the business services that Vimeo offers. Here are some of the important features you can use to promote your business on this video platform.
[Read more: 5 Video Marketing Tools for Small Businesses]
Key features in Vimeo
Vimeo offers an array of features and tools, with plans for any type of consumer, from single-user plans to thousand-plus-user corporate ones. For small businesses, the core product offering is known as Vimeo Create. Vimeo Create was launched in 2020 with a set of video tools for smaller merchants seeking to create social videos, but who may lack the resources, time or budget needed to compete with large enterprises.
Vimeo Create offers customizable video templates, unlimited stock photos and videos and licensed music to help bring your video to life. Team members can collaborate on projects with time-coded feedback and other review tools. Once your product is finished, you can publish it to virtually any social media platform (including YouTube and Pinterest) and track analytics, social stats and engagement and duration graphs.
Pricing for Vimeo ranges: Tiered pricing starts with a free 30-day plan and goes up to a premium plan, which offers livestreaming for $75 per month. Vimeo Create is priced at $20 per month.
Vimeo vs. YouTube
YouTube and Vimeo offer similar features. Like Vimeo, YouTube offers analytics for businesses looking to track ROI but YouTube has a huge audience, with roughly two billion monthly users. YouTube is a content machine, with advanced algorithms that can help show not only your video content but your social media channels and website, too.
What makes Vimeo stand out is the platform’s dedication to helping creators produce high-quality videos that make a difference.
Neil Patel, marketing expert and co-founder of NP Digital
“YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, right after parent company Google. If you're planning to create a video tailored to a specific search query, (e.g., how to pick a font for your website), your video belongs on YouTube. Not only will it appear in search results directly on YouTube, but Google also seems to favor videos from YouTube over those posted on other platforms,” wrote the experts at HubSpot.
Vimeo is favored by experts for its customer support, creator tools and community. And it’s relatively easy to create your video using Vimeo and post it to YouTube to take advantage of that platform’s SEO, audience and analytics.
“What makes Vimeo stand out is the platform’s dedication to helping creators produce high-quality videos that make a difference. Unlike YouTube, you won’t find random, low-quality videos and tons of spam,” wrote marketing expert Neil Patel.
Tips for marketing on Vimeo
If you choose to market your business on the Vimeo platform, there are many tools you can use to help users find your content. Start by creating a custom channel that reflects your company branding in your channel’s title, thumbnail, header image, description and custom URL.
Another advantage of Vimeo is that there are no pre-video or mid-roll ads, unlike YouTube. Vimeo’s privacy controls make it a great platform for hosting training videos and other employee development content. Use Vimeo in your recruiting to promote your employer brand; the analytics can help you drive engagement with potential candidates and identify new talent.
Vimeo is also great for livestreaming events. You can choose to broadcast live and record the event for future outreach. Vimeo integrates with plenty of third-party tools, including Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Mailchimp, Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor. This allows you to be both broad and targeted in your marketing, garnering a large audience and also reaching out to customers who you know are interested in your business.
[Read more: 6 Free, 'Freemium' and Paid Livestreaming Tools to Consider]
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